Movies

Mexico guv succeeds in capping tax incentives

MUMBAI: New Mexico‘s new Republican governor Susana Martinez has succeeded in her attempt to get state lawmakers cap tax incentives for the film industry.

A bill, on its way to Governor Susana Martinez‘s desk after the legislative session ended over the weekend, would limit total state film incentives to $50 million a year.

Under the cap, if a film is due more than that in tax credits in a year, the filmmaker could collect in the next years as well. It is being said that the said cap could mean some $23 million a year in savings.

But Martinez, who has called the incentives "a subsidy to Hollywood on the backs of our schoolchildren," did not succeed in getting the incentives cut from 25 to 15 percent as she wanted. The 25 percent rebate means that a quarter of any qualified film expenditures in the state are returned to film makers.

The governor said that she was encouraged by the legislative compromise. In a statement on Friday, she said the film cuts "protected classroom funding and healthcare for those most in need."

About 20 states currently give more or equally generous film incentives than New Mexico, including Louisiana, New York, and most recently, Utah, where a proposed incentive increase from 15 to 25 per cent awaits the governor‘s signature.